Dan Wetzel at Yahoo Sports writes about the "cataclysmic" drop in viewership for the Olympic opening ceremonies - down over 40% from four years ago. And the events viewership is worse - down two thirds from Sochi. Wetzel points out that NBC paid almost $8B (yes, that's billion) for the broadcast rights through 2032.
Wetzel proposes many reasons for the apathy:
- Dissatisfaction with China for various geopolitical reasons,
- Anti-Covid measures are making things difficult for athletes,
- Difficulty in visiting results in very small crowds of spectators,
- "Olympic fatigue" - the delayed summer Olympics were held only 6 months ago.
None of this explain why the American public no longer cares about the Olympic games. There's quite a simple explanation, one that Wetzel interestingly does not explore. American Olympians have for a couple decades now acted as spoiled, unpatriotic brats. They've taken a knee during the national anthem at awards ceremonies. They've given interviews generously larded with examples of how the Republic has oppressed everyone under the sun. Displays of patriotism and gratitude to their country - and to their fellow countrymen - have been notable by their absence.
And we're supposed to watch these impolite, unpatriotic brats "represent" us? No thanks.
The American Olympic Committee has brought this on themselves, by allowing this behavior for far too long. Me, I don't care if I never watch another Olympics.
"Me, I don't care if I never watch another Olympics."
ReplyDeletesame same
I'll be damned if I'll have anything to do with the CCP Olympics.
ReplyDeleteI used to be big into them, but don't care anymore.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that fewer and fewer athletes aim for the Olympics either. They aim for Pro, X Games, etc instead.
"Olympic fatigue"? It wasn't too long ago (OK, it was 30 years ago) that the winter olympics and summer olympics were always in the same year, with the summer games 5 or 6 months after the winter games.
ReplyDeleteThe Olympic athletes and coaches used to be pro-USA. Not anymore.
ReplyDeleteNASCAR has done the same for me. I have been a NASCAR fan since the 60s. They keep going woke. What they did to Brandon Brown was the last straw.
Go woke, go broke. **** them all.
Olympics?... Those ancient games where naked men ran for the prize of leaves on their heads... as opposed to leaves covering their crotches?... 'Sounds like rampant faggotry to me... Not interested...
ReplyDeleteYou are not wrong Borepatch. Watching other athletes celebrate their countries and what many US Athletes have become - not all of them mind you, and I do feel sorry for the ones that are genuinely proud of representing their country and are caught in the cross fire - is illuminating. What the Olypmics will find out - what NBC is finding out - is that it they have a customer base like anyone else. Lose your customer base, and lose your product.
ReplyDeleteIt may get even worse for the Olympics. I saw an article yesterday that Weight Lifting is currently not listed as a 2028 Olympic event, only an "observation only". If that holds, that will cut out another swath of viewers. Oddly enough, the IOC is downgrading them because of corruption (doping, primarily). Which is a bit amusing, coming from the IOC.
Okay, I'm gonna step on the landmine to save the rest of you.
ReplyDeleteI want to watch the Olympics. I want to see athletes doing athletic stuff. Men vs Men. Women vs Women. And in those sports that allow Men vs Women vs Men, like show jumping and dressage.
Gay? Greg Louganis and Scott Hamilton were/are gay, but they don't melt the ice with their outright flaming like so many today.
Republican or Democrat or American Communist or John Bircher? Don't care as long as athlete doesn't open his/her fat trap and make me listen to their drivel.
And I don't care about their backstories and their boohoo stories. Don't. Care. DON'T. CARE.
Want to watch sports. Want to see people at their best. And, yes, for the spectacular wipeouts and crashes and screwups and outright failures. It is what it is.
But... American citizen, playing for another country because mom or dad from another country? Sure, go ahead. And then your citizenship is revoked, permanently. Play for us and support us or go copulate yourself.
Train here in the US? That's one thing. But US citizen batting for the other teams? Nope.
And simple answer to the whole trans thing. Genetic XX or XY, that's what matters. Anything else is a travesty.
Fix that. Fix the color-commentary. Stop all the human interest bullscat.
Not bothering to watch. The NASCAR race in the LA Coliseum was MUCH more entertaining, and the drivers were proud to be there!
ReplyDeleteConcur.
ReplyDeleteLet us not forget the abject dilution of the "Amateur" status of those competing. Hockey? Basketball? Volleyball? (Although there ARE some attenuating features there).
ReplyDeletePro Sports, straight up.
I don't watch the Olympics because Jim Thorpe.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering, though, and maybe someone who keeps up more can answer this question: have any of the US athletes involved in the various shooting sports said anything negative or demeaning about the United States?
I don't recall hearing any such things, but it may not get the same coverage because their sports are more obscure. Or I may not have heard such things because they don't exist. I'm not sure which one is true.
==Dwight
Just HAVE to compete. Even knowing CCP might pull a fast one on them. Kidnapping by any other name, "new" virus, l o o n g quarantine, months perhaps, and they will expect US to get them out. But no way to send a few choppers and teams in. Not in China. So at the mercy of diplomatic efforts. What would it cost this country to get them out?
ReplyDeleteThey shouldn't be there in the first place.
We've been conditioned not to care.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't that we're not supposed to care about sports. They don't matter.
We are supposed to not care about things that do matter. Boys saying they are girls. Don't care. Sex with children. Don't care. Insane government spending. Don't care. Government corruption. Don't care. And it goes on. We're told, don't care about any of it.
If we shouldn't care about things that matter. Why would we care about sports, that don't?
Maybe all that is why ya'll aren't watching.
ReplyDeleteBut for most of the younger generation, I expect it also has a lot to do with the fact that they can see spectacular feats of athleticism whenever they want on their cell phones.
Oh, you did that in the prime of your life? Here's an eight year old girl doing that. Here's a seventy year old man.
As entertainment, what do the Olympics actually bring to the table in the modern era, except commercial breaks?
I don't care about the chicoms one way or another.
ReplyDeleteThey were chosen long ago to host these games.
That said, I don't care for the editorial comment of the sporstcasters (I heard a piece the other day that had no place in a sports broadcast), and I don't care about the athletes all that much.
My problem is they don't show the sports that I'm interested in - weightlifting, shooting, biathalon, martial arts.
I also shun broadcast TV and have for years. I simply don't plop down in front of the boob tube to watch what's on.
Its also important to note that these Olympics are front loaded with their content... They have already been showing figure skating from the beginning which is the most popular in viewership. The ratings are only going to get worse as the games go on.
ReplyDeleteAlong the same lines of your observation about ungrateful, unpatriotic athletes... they did a special feature on the girl who won gold for slope style skiing in which they featured what a feminist she was and how it was so incredibly important for her to be seen as a female athlete so that other little girls would view her as an inspiration and see "representation" on full display... thing is, she is an American, but she chose to be on the Chinese Olympic team... she chose to represent an oppressive country who treats women like total garbage.
AMEN
ReplyDelete